


the other side

by wondybread



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, One Shot, honestly it's been a bit since i watched the movies, ignores Epilogue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wondybread/pseuds/wondybread
Summary: Most realizations start with a spark. Harry and Hermione are no different
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. discovery

Her magic is changing. It's purple for one, a dull lavender thing. It also spills out of her. It changes every day, jumping from her collarbone to her right eye to her arm. When she wakes in the morning, the first thing she looks for is the dull purple light on her skin then proceeds to find the appropriate clothing to cover it. She's glad she ended things with Ron before this started happening. She's been trying to study it. She's run into dead ends so far. But what she does know is that it leaves her somewhat exhausted. 

_Drained_ , she thinks, watching it drip from her fingertips to the floor, fizzling into nothing.

Her doorbell rings and she looks up in alarm. She thrusts her hands into a pair of gloves and opens the door and she stops.

"Harry," she breathes. "What are you doing here?"

"Headmistress McGonagall said you were on sabbatical," he tells her with a small grin.

"My time there was always temporary," she replies. "Sorry but how did you find this?" She waves a hand around the house. His grin widens.

"You had mentioned a small cabin in the mountains that your parents had bought when you were small." 

She doesn't remember the conversation, she doesn't remember _a lot_ of that time really.

"Come in," she waves him inside.

She goes about making tea as he plops down at the island.

"You are trying to stay off the grid." It's not a question but she nods anyway. "You ended things with Ron?"

"Yes," she answers and he nods too. He stares at her for a moment, her fingertips ache slightly from it. “Has he told you why?”

“No. I presumed another fight.” Harry shrugs. 

She hums. “I can’t quite remember it if I’m being honest.”

“See? You should come back and-“

“What I _do_ remember is that we’d been talking about family and the war and he said, ’what do you know of loss?’” She pauses as she glances at Harry’s frozen face. “He's not wrong but I still left that night.”

The silence presses on them, her fingertips are hot.

“I’m not going back,” she tells him. 

“I’m sorry. He’s wrong, of course,” he says quietly, fiercely. “Why are you wearing gloves? It’s June,” he says abruptly. Before she can think of a response, he reaches over and yanks them off her hands. The purple light jumps from her fingertips onto his wrist and bursts like fireworks on contact. 

“Whoa, how’d you do that?” He asks after a stunned silence. He examines his hands, impressed.

She looks at him with wide eyes. _You._ And it clicks. Then _fuck_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!


	2. reflection

“Luna,” Hermione says, sighing in relief when she finds Luna standing on her doorstep.

Luna gives her a placid smile.

“You look well, Hermione.”

Hermione sends her a somewhat pained smile in return. At Luna’s expectant gaze, she yanks a glove off her hand and holds her palm up to eye level, the purple light dripping and oozing from her fingertips. 

After she’d kicked Harry out - under the guise of tackling the mountain of paperwork she had which isn’t _technically_ a lie, she will get around to it - Hermione had called Luna immediately, who replied that she’d be over after her “observation of the nymphs and the centaurs concluded”. Which really meant fifteen minutes.

Upon noticing the purple light spilling over, Luna’s eyes brighten and she tilts her head slightly.

“Curious,” she murmurs, as she follows Hermione inside.

Hermione perches herself on the couch, feeling it dip as Luna does the same beside her. She lets Luna take her hands gently, watches her turn them over with fascination.

“You have nothing with it? No pain, swelling, hallucinations?” Luna asks, giving one of her fingers a poke.

Hermione lets out a slight chuckle.

“No, none of that. I feel more tired, but I’m almost sure that has nothing to do with this.”

Luna looks up at her tone, giving her the same look that she used to give at Hogwarts that would always somewhat unnerve her. It’s a waiting expression, it’s an I’ll-know-when-you’re-lying expression.

“You’re doing alright?”

Hermione swallows. “Yeah, the work at the Ministry is a bit heavy but it’s a welcome distraction.” Hermione hesitates. “Ron and I ended things.”

“I’m glad for you and Ronald but that’s not what I meant,” Luna replies.

_Damn_. A little surprisingly, Hermione and Luna have grown quite close over the years and Hermione now considers her a close friend. Hermione should have known better, should have know that Luna would have seen right through her. Luna waits.

“I still have nightmares, if that’s what you’re asking,” Hermione tells her reluctantly. “They’re becoming less frequent though. And I am…seeing someone about them. McGonagall recommended her.”

Luna hums, appeased. “Your fingers ache a little now?”

“Yes,” Hermione answers, eyes wide in surprise. “How did you -“

“They’re warmer than they were earlier.”

Luna glances down at Hermione’s hands again before releasing them, and Hermione clasps them together, curling them into her chest almost self-consciously.

“What do you think?” Hermione asks after a moment.

Hermione’s desperate. She’s sick of having to hide, sick of not being able to go out without covering up, sick of being given away. Harry’s smile flashes across her mind's eye when he’d discovered her hands, remembers how her magic had...reacted to him. No, she can’t go on like this.

“Well, I’d read some time ago about an alternate myth of Medusa. In which, being immortal, her snake hair had adapted to become a series of tattoos, shifting around on her body until ready,” Luna answers a little distantly.

Hermione smiles, both exasperated and amused. She’s missed Luna.

“I don’t think that’s it, Luna,” Hermione says delicately.

Luna flashes her a grin.

“No, I suppose not. We’d have known by now if you were a descendent.” Hermione forces herself not to ask questions as Luna motions for Hermione’s hands again and she doesn’t know why but Hermione feels vaguely reluctant. She ignores the feeling and reaches out.

“How are you and Harry?”

Hermione moves to pinch the bridge of her nose but Luna holds fast. Hermione settles for rolling her eyes.

“We’re fine.”

Luna has always implicated and stated outright that Hermione has had feelings for him. And Hermione would always deny it. Because she didn’t feel that way. Not towards him. Until she realized she did. _Stupid Harry_.

A slow, knowing smile tugs at the corners of Luna’s lips. _Stupid Luna_.

“We’re fine,” Hermione repeats. 

Suddenly, Hermione’s fingers feel hot, feels that hotness spread over her knuckles. She looks down and sees that the light has spread, coating the palm of her right hand and the knuckles of the left. Hermione snatches her hands back.

Luna watches this, practically giddy.

“Perhaps it’ll help to be...a little honest,” Luna says mildly.

“I am,” Hermione replies quickly, ignoring how defensive she sounds. The light spreads further, up to her wrists, growing brighter almost angrily. “I am,” she insists.

And now it’s on her forearms, all the way up to her elbows. Hermione gives her hands a slight shake, thinking the light will slide off as it had done before. But it remains stubbornly attached to her.

Hermione groans. “Is this one of those Pinocchio scenarios?”

“What’s a Pinocchio?” Luna asks, looking genuinely confused.

Hermione glares down at her hands, at this - infection.

“I can’t be honest,” she says quietly. “Ron and I -“ Hermione cuts herself off, giving her head a slight shake. “Harry’s eventually going to get back together with Ginny, eventually marry her.” 

Luna only looks at her.

“They’ve been over for years,” Luna replies, and even though her voice is still dreamy, Hermione hears the slight edge to her tone. “She’s back with Dean now actually. And you and Ron are better off this way.”

Hermione looks away, thoughtful and guilty.

“Harry and I…” Hermione trails off, feeling the weight of how that sounds on her tongue. She remembers his hair this morning, still shockingly unkempt and his eyes crinkling at the corners when he smiled. Hermione shakes her head again.

“We’ve been friends for years,” Hermione tells her, staring unseeingly at the scuff on her coffee table. “Over a decade. It could change everything. I could...lose him and his friendship. That’s not worth it to me.”

A moment passes between them.

“I think if it were anyone else, I would agree,” Luna replies finally. Although Hermione doesn’t know which part she would agree to.

Hermione sighs, hates all of these stupid feelings roiling inside her gut. And on her arms. She looks at them sourly, and that purple light only glints back innocently.

She rises, shoving all of it away to be dealt with later.

“Stay for dinner?” Hermione asks, already walking over to the kitchen and glancing at Luna over her shoulder.

Luna moves to stand and smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hermione, i think, can sometimes be willfully ignorant. but luna, great friend that she is, won't let her. thank you for reading as always


End file.
